Controlling wave-particle duality with entanglement between single-photon and Bell states

Wang，Kai1; Terno，Daniel R.2,3; Brukner，Časlav4,5; Zhu，Shining1,6,7; Ma，Xiao Song1,6,7

2022-11-01

10.1103/PhysRevA.106.053715

Physical Review A   Impact Factor & Quartile

2469-9926

2469-9934

Wave-particle duality and entanglement are two fundamental characteristics of quantum mechanics. All previous works on experimental investigations in wave-particle properties of single photons (or single particles in general) showed that a well-defined interferometer setting determines a well-defined property of single photons. Here we take a conceptual step forward and control the wave-particle property of single photons with a Bell state. By doing so, we experimentally test the complementarity principle in a scenario in which the setting of the interferometer is not defined at any instance of the experiment, not even in principle. To achieve this goal, we establish the three-photon entangled state, i.e., the entanglement between a single photon and a two-photon Bell state, send the photon of interest S into a quantum Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), in which the output beam splitter of the MZI is controlled by the quantum state of the second photon C, which is entangled with a third photon A. Therefore, the individual quantum state of photon C is undefined, which implements the undefined settings of the MZI for photon S. This is realized by using three cascaded phase-stable interferometers for three photons. There is typically no well-defined setting of the MZI and thus the very formulation of the wave-particle objectivity from local hidden variable models becomes internally inconsistent.

SCI

English

Others

National Key Research and Development Program of China["2019YFA0308700","2017YFA0303704"] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China["11690032","11321063"] ; NSFC-BRICS[61961146001] ; Leading-Edge Technology Program of Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation[BK20192001] ; Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology[2021ZD0301500] ; Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent[20220ZB60]

Optics ; Physics

Optics ; Physics, Atomic, Molecular & Chemical

WOS:000917993900006

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

2-s2.0-85143199120

Scopus

1.National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures,School of Physics,Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures,Nanjing University,Nanjing,210093,China
2.School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences,Macquarie University,Sydney,2109,Australia
3.Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering,Department of Physics,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
4.Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology,Faculty of Physics,University of Vienna,Vienna,1090,Austria
5.Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information,Austrian Academy of Sciences,Vienna,1090,Austria
6.Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics,University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei,Anhui,230026,China
7.Hefei National Laboratory,Hefei,230088,China

Wang，Kai,Terno，Daniel R.,Brukner，Časlav,et al. Controlling wave-particle duality with entanglement between single-photon and Bell states[J]. Physical Review A,2022,106(5).

Wang，Kai,Terno，Daniel R.,Brukner，Časlav,Zhu，Shining,&Ma，Xiao Song.(2022).Controlling wave-particle duality with entanglement between single-photon and Bell states.Physical Review A,106(5).

Wang，Kai,et al."Controlling wave-particle duality with entanglement between single-photon and Bell states".Physical Review A 106.5(2022).